To Enrich Your Child's Life.
Simple child-rearing tips come in handy whether you're just casting for new and exciting directions in child care or you're plain stumped. Here, in this blog, you'll find tonnes of them for children of all ages toddlers, pre-schoolers, school kids, pre-teens, teenagers, and even young adults. If you apply at least a handful of the hundred ideas I have here for you, I'll pat myself on the back. Of course, you could do that too by letting me know how it's going.

Monday, November 22

Art and craft for the older child is replete with possibilities. It gives parents a chance to brush up on their dusty craft skills and show off a bit. This is certainly one of those things that make parenting fun. Take care, however, to curb your enthusiasm and not turn it into a full-fledged art and crafts competition with your 7 year old. With a minimum of time and effort, parents and kids get to spend relaxing and rewarding moments in each other's company. Say goodbye to those So what do you wanna do? long weekends with a happy schedule of arts and crafts.

Sunday, November 21

Hobby activities for older children is quite an interesting aspect of parenting. I would even go so far as to say it's truly one of the perks of parenting. Here's your chance to get to know what makes that young mind tick, those eyes to shine, and that smile to get wider and stay that way.

Parental guidance is of course at a lower level than when your child was around 4 to 6 years of age. But certainly not totally out of the question. Parent's role now is to show interest, motivate, and help when needed. While an older kid might prefer to continue with his childhood hobbies, it might become necessary to shift gear, choose new activities befitting mental growth and age, and check out new fields of interests.

Friday, January 15

Hobby activities for young children are a great way to keep them occupied fruitfully, a way of creatively filling those gaps in which they may whine I'm bored. Hobby activities are what fills those long rainy days, those snow-bound winters, or even blistering hot summer days. That's Tip No. 6 for you and it has to be seen as separate from craft and art, music, sport, and fitness.

All you have to do is get them interested in the pursuit of one of many simple hobbies for kids and they'll take it from there. Hobby activities do not have to be state-of-the-art affairs. Although collecting matchbox pictures may not be in vogue any more, there are other affordable hobbies that are equally fun.

When choosing hobby activities for your children you'd do well to make sure that,

They are not terribly expensive to pursue

It is something a young child can take an interest in and keep up

It is a simple activity to begin with

It can be developed as the child grows and continue to excite him

It can be confined to her spare time and not overtake study and other activities

You spare at least some time to show an interest in her hobby

It can be pursued independently by your child without needing you to chaperone

It can be done at home and does not require your chauffeuring

Kids hobbies used to be a normal part of growing up in the good old days. Think baseball cards, stamp, coin collection, or even butterfly collection. But these days even young children don't seem to have the time to spare for a hobby.

However, when you get down to brass tacks what exactly is it that keeps your young kids busy? Television? Video games? Long phone conversations, perhaps? Do you even know? Well, you'll certainly have more of an idea of what they are up to in their spare time if you introduced them to a big, fat hobby when you had a chance; that is in their early formative years.

A hobby is an activity you pursue for sheer enjoyment and personal satisfaction. Starting your child on one is one of the greatest gifts you can bestow on her. As a parent or chief caregiver, you are the best person to figure out where your child's interests lie. Is she a collector of stuff, clever with her fingers, great at jigsaws, a book lover?

Kids hobby activities could begin with simple stuff like collecting rocks, pebbles, or sea-shells. It could grow into sorting and learning more about the different types. Then there's a botanical version where you give him an old dictionary in which he can press leaves and flowers to dry. Soon he'll have hundreds of them and of course, ultimately learn all about it and grow up to be an expert. And to think it all started as a childhood hobby.

Thursday, January 7

Fitness and kids often get mixed up with other apparently similar issues such as kids and sports and games. So, let me clarify at the outset as we go on to my Tip No.3 which is One Fitness Exercise for your child. Fitness for kids should ideally be seen as separate from these other things for the following reasons

• Some kids might hate sports and games but find fitness a bearable idea.

Tuesday, January 5

Kids and sports can become quite a passionate affair for some parents while others consider sports simply barbaric. We need to stop right there and that's because we're right now at the verge of committing that horrible crime most often associated with kids and sports—what parents want!

Kid's sports and parents should ideally be kept apart and not allowed to interfere with each other. Parental interference in kid's sporting fields has risen to such ridiculous heights that I remember reading about a soccer mom sporting a rifle at her children's games, as if that 4WD is not dangerous enough. Well, this post is not about soccer moms gone round the bend, but about the importance of sports for children.

It would be a good idea to encourage your kids to learn and master at least one sport. The choices are mind boggling. Pick from ball games such as football, baseball, basketball, netball, softball, and then there's hockey, tennis, badminton, bowling, and more.